A familiar face in a foreign land
by The Cactus
Summary: Two familiar people, after a long break, finally meet.


**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

* * *

Keitaro was feeling happy as he stepped off the subway.

Today, he would finally be able to meet a good friend of his, Naru Narusegawa, again.

Keitaro hadn't had had a chance to see her again ever since she had left their hometown in Hokkaido last year. However, in recent weeks, he had decided to take a holiday, and what better place in the country to holiday in early winter, other than Tokyo, which wouldn't snow until January at the earliest? For one, he would be able to get away of the massive blankets of snow, which, while beautiful to watch, were most certainly _not _nice to live in. And besides, snow, to those who knew it, was nothing more than a hindrance.

Still, the biggest draw for him to come to Tokyo was the presence of one of his best friends, whom, as stated earlier, he had not seen in quite some time.

Unfortunately, because of her busy schedule, (Hey, she was going for her doctorate) the two could only meet up on the second last day of his trip, a fact that he regretted. He had been hoping to be able to spend more time with his friend, but he'll settle for just an evening with her. After all, every single bit of time was precious, because she wouldn't be returning for quite some time yet, and he wasn't going to be able to take holidays on a regular basis.

And so here he was, at the subway station, waiting for her to arrive. Making his way above ground, Keitaro scanned his surroundings, looking to see if Naru had already arrived. Unfortunately, she had not.

He checked his watch. "4:55. Hmm, I've got to wait another five minutes…" He returned his hand to his coat pocket, because even though it wasn't snowing, it didn't mean that it wasn't _cold. _

To his right, in the distance, Keitaro spotted the Tokyo tower rising high into the air.

"KEITARO!"

Keitaro spun around, just in time to see his friend running towards him, waving her hand. When she reached him, she looked him over once, before raising her arms and pulling him into a hug. "Keitaro! Its so good to see you!"

Keitaro smiled. "Yeah. I missed you too!" But then, his smile turned rueful. "It's been quite some time, hasn't it…?"

She returned his rueful smile with her own. "Yeah… it has been quite some time…" But then he smile brightened again, and she grabbed his arm, running towards the tower in the distance. "Come on! You said that you wanted to visit the tower, so lets not waste any more time!" Keitaro willingly allowed himself to be dragged behind, all the while smiling at his friend antics. It turned out that the tower was further away that what it seemed, so the trip tool longer than expected. But that turned out for the better, because the pair took the time to catch up on the latest happenings.

"So, how are your studies going?"

'Oh, they're going quite well, but sometimes I get stumped when trying to map out the more complex parts of each individual protein…"

And before they knew it, they had arrived at the tower.

"Well, to get up here, we need to buy tickets…"

"My treat then, after all, it isn't every day that you get to come here to Tokyo. It wouldn't be fair to ask you to pay for such a thing…"

"Nonsense! I'm the one who dragged you here in the first place, even though you've already been here before. I'll pay."

And with that, Keitaro joined the queue to buy tickets. The queue was rather long, so Naru decided to ask him about home.

"Life back home is still the same... the family's doing well, nothing major has happened since you left, but oh, the ramen stand we used to frequent has closed down…."

Unfortunately, even though the queue was long, it was also fast, so Keitaro didn't have much time to catch Naru up before they had to queue up… again to take the lifts to the observation deck. (Because Keitaro thought that going up to the observation deck was enough, he decided not to fork out the extra cash to go higher to the _special _observation deck, the cheapskate.) Fortunately, this queue moved fast too, but the situation inside the lift wasn't exactly ideal, seeing as about 20 people had to be squeezed into a normal lift. Naru was squashed right up against Keitaro, but neither of them seemed to mind.

After a long, _long _ride, the lift doors opened and people streamed out… only to move right into a gigantic crowd within the observation deck.

Keitaro rubbed the back of his head. "I guess this wasn't the best time to come…" He finished with a sheepish grin.

Naru laughed in return. "Oh come on, the tower's this crowded no matter what time of the day! Lets check out the night skyline of Tokyo."

The both of them wandered around the observation deck, which was filled with people trying to take pictures of the beautiful night scene of Tokyo. Keitaro looked out of the glass panels. Simply put… Tokyo was… a mess. Buildings appeared to be strewn about haphazardly, without any visible organization at all. But with the bright lights of places such as Shinjuku and the running lights many, many cars traversing through the city, the city appeared oddly… mesmerizing.

The two of them simple stood at the window for a long while, her arms entwined with his, simply enjoying each others company, before Keitaro looked down at his watch and his eyes turned downcast. "Naru, its already 6.30. You have to return by eight, right? You'll have to leave now if you want to get back in time…"

Naru too glanced down at her watch before she bowed her head. "Keitaro… I'm sorry we couldn't spend more time together."

"Its ok." Keitaro smiled, but his eyes expressed something altogether different.

Naru kept her head bowed. "It's been really great to see you… A familiar face in a foreign land…" Naru raised her head, "you won't know the loneliness until you've experienced it… this really means a lot to me. Thank you, Keitaro."

He swept her up into a hug.

"I guess this is goodbye then."

Yeah, but we'll see each other again soon, I promise."

And with that, Naru turned and made her way towards the elevator, waiting patiently as she joined the queue. Keitaro waved to her as she went into the lift, and he smiled. His eyes stayed on the lift until it was gone.

Keitaro turned and looked out of the glass panels again.

xxxxx

**A/N: **I apologize for the crappiness. I'm really, really, really, rusty.


End file.
